MAR-APR '91 VOL.9 NO.2
INC LINK
VOL.9 NO.S
MAR-APR '91
S INC-L INK IS A PUBLICATION OF
THE TORONTO T I HEX-SINCLAIR USERS
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MATERIAL.
THE CLUB MEETS ON THE FIRST
WEDNESDAY OF EACH MONTH AT
FOREST HILLS COLLEGIATE
INSTITUTE, 710 EGLINTON AVE. W. ,
TORONTO. START TIME: 7s 00 PM.
SEND CORRESPONDANCE TO:
Attention: S INC-L INK
TORONTO TIMEX-SINCLAIR
CLUB, 14 RICHOME
SCARBOROUGH, ONTARIO,
CANADA M1K 2Y1
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS:
PRESIDENT:
TREASURER:
SECRETARY:
ACTIVITIES:
TAPE LIBRARIAN ZX81 :
TAPE LIBRARIAN 2066:
TAPE/DISK LIBRARIAN QL:
PAPER LIBRARIAN:
NEWSLETTER:
LIAISON OFFICER:
( Out-of-town members )
EDITOR
USERS
COURT,
TORONTO TIMEX-SINCLAIR
USERS CLUB
(Area Code 416)
RENE BRUNEAU ( 331-9749 )
BILL LAWSON ( 444-8772 )
GEORGE CHAMBERS ( 731-7339 )
RENE BRUNEAU ( 331-9749 )
LYMAN PAQUETTE ( 482-4479 )
RENATO ZANNESE ( 635-6536 )
HUGH HOWIE ( 634-4929 )
JEFF TAYLOR ( 244-8583 )
JEFF TAYLOR ( 244-8583 )
GEORGE CHAMBERS. 14 RICHOME COURT,
SCARBOROUGH. ONTARIO. M1K 2Y1
( 416-751-7559 )
T I ME^i-S I
I R USERS
SINC-LINK
Editorial
An interesting little get-together was held at Hugh Howie's
about three weeks ago. Most of the in-town QL users and the club
secretary met with Paul Holmgren for an afternoon bull session
and general good time. Paul is best known as a U.S. QUANTA
librarian, the current guiding light for SNUG (the Sinclair
North American User Group) and a co-owner of Mini Mechanical
Affinity, a parts and software company serving the T/S (QL
mostly) community.
Everyone happily doled out loot to pick up a variety of bits
like keyboard membranes, ROM replacement EPROMS. clock
battery-backups and even a TS1000 ROM upgrade.
Then we made Paul really work by grilling him on the progress
of SNUG to date and where he thought he would like it to go.
Yes. he admitted that things had not moved as quickly as the
founding members had hoped and, yes, the newsletter, SNUG
Roundup, had been published at rather erratic intervals. Paul
attributed this to a combination of the problem of having a club
executive spread across the continent, the difficulties of
communicating at long distance and perhaps a lack of commitment
on the part of some people once the scope of the project was
real ized .
Anyway all this is about to change, Paul said, because SNUG
now has a new newsletter editor who is determined to succeed. To
their credit, SNUG has assembled a data base on 2068 disk of
sources of information on any topic relating to Timex-Sinclair .
Simply ask them to find info on a subject and they will come
back with which publications contain the data you require and
then they will find the articles for you. It sounds impressive.
The general consensus at the meeting was that after three
years of not seeing much for our SNUG membership fees, we will
wait and see if SNUG will take off before renewing our
membership. I think Paul felt a little defensive after our
verbal third degree.
Things then moved on to a question and answer period about
making our QLs run better (not crash) and one of the key points
Hugh mentioned and Paul agreed with was that the QL is very
sensitive to changes in line voltage. Something to keep in mind.
Paul was very helpful and forthcoming with answers to our
problems and generally everyone came away feeling he had got
something useful out the meeting.
Thanks to Hugh and his wife for their hospitality and thanks
to Paul for making the trip from Indiana.
Oops
Some of the out-of-town members received the last issue of
Sine-Link with what appeared to be two covers, one after the
other and the page numbers in the wrong corners. I assure you
that it did not go to the printer like that but since I get it
printed for a very reasonable rate I couldn't ask them to redo
it. I did however, leave out a listing for Sebastian Boisvert's
article. It appears this issue. Sorry, S.B. Oh well, the best
laid plans . . .
Cont
SINC-LINK
Cover
This issues' cover is another Super Screen from Byte Power's
The Companion suite of screens for the The Print Factory desktop
publisher. Not bad for the ol 1 2068 and a nine pin printer, eh?
Thanks for the positive feedback on last issues' cover,
readers .
That ' s all for now. . .
J.T.
"And the Lord said, 'Come, let us us go down, and there confuse their lan-
guage that they may not understand one another's speech . . Gen. 11 V.7.
SINC-LINK
BOB'S NOTEBOOK 919119
In writing this column, I always
try to include material from my
"notebook" that I have just been
working on that should appear in
the next Sine-Link in order to
be timely. What follows comes as
a result of my latest
endeavours .
Uhen I read each issue of
Sine-Link, there is often
material that does not interest
me at the time ! But as time
wears on, I often go back to old
issues in search of some
information on a subject I was
not then into but have now
decided to investigate. Thus, I
keep a fairly comprehensive
index of items for all the
issues of the newsletter back to
1985. This I keep in two
Pro/File files, slink and slink2
which are available from the
club library.
For those using Pro/File, I have
just performed some minor
surgery on the BASIC to put in a
couple of options that may
interest you:
<1> There is now a CAT option
that displays the directory on
the disk in the selected drive;
then goes on to display more
information in the form of start
address and length of each file
on that same disk (a.k.a.
Fullcat);
(2) There is also an option to
allow you to switch back and
forth between the Left and Right
side of the 8.5 inch page. This
seems a rather crude way to pack
more mat er i a 1 - on t o each page for
after printing the left column
for each page, it is necessary
to roll the paper back and then
print the right-hand column.
Another way I can see to do this
would be to export the Pro/File
file into Pixel Print
Professional and take advantage
of the Bank Switching technique
to print the left and right
columns simultaneously. I tried
this approach; if you want to
have a go, here are a few
lessons learned :
< 1 > SAVE the Pro/File file to
disk using the RND/SEQ commands
in the Version 3 EPROM. Give the
new files a name ending with the
Mscript extensions (.CT) eg, you
would open a channel thus:
RANDOMIZE USR 190: OPEN
*3,Mname.CT OUT".
(2) In PPP, the MSCRIPT to PP
conversion routine will only
handle up to 375 lines, so you
must save text in parts that do
not exceed this limit. Vou can
accomplish this by using the
Profile search command wisely,
eg, using 89 will save all the
records with that number in
them.
(3) Blank lines will not be*
saved so don't count them as you
keep track.
(4) Load PPP and select the
Mscript conversion routine. Use
the 64 col option.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
I concluded it is far easier to
use the Left/Right toggle and
roll the paper back.
In any case, I have provided a
copy of the revision for the
club library and it is available
to those who are valid owners of
Pro/F i 1 e .
One tack I have taken lately
(suggested to me by Richard
Hurd) was to disconnect my
TS2949 and cope only with the
wide t>r inter . So far, it has
been successful with the only
problem area being getting a
printout of Timachine output and
this can be done using the
Random/Sequential Filing
commands. Vou may recall that I
covered that in the May/Jun 99
issue page 4.
Let's consider interaction
bet ween files:
One of the side-effects of using
Omnibus is that sometimes
loading a program from the menus
produces strange results or no
results at all.
For example, if you save
Timachine onto the Omnibus disk
and try to load it using a menu
option, you may be frustrated.
It seems that some
incompatibility exists that
prevents Timachine from being
loaded unless the computer is
reset or at least another
AUTOSTART file is loaded. I have
never been able to discover the
cause or how to resolve this
problem.
However, one problem occurred
recently which I was able to
resolve. If you have Mscript
(tailored for Omnibus /Ramdisk
use) as an Omnibus menu option,
load it and cheok how many bytes
have been used <<LENGTH> on the
Mscript home menu); it should be
1 (one) . Now quit Mscript which
should take you back to the
Omnibus menu. Load some other
program, say, Profile; then quit
to the Omnibus menu. Now reload
Mscript. If you do not get a
length 1 on the menu, you have
this incompatibility. For the
length 1 to be displayed, I have
discovered that the addresses
46927, 35449 and 44935 must all
hold zeroes. Go back to the
Omnibus file and break into
BASIC. Find the line that loads
Mscript; it should be 3329.
After the first PAUSE oo, add
SINC-LINK
<POKE 46927, oo:
POKE 44935, oo>.
you 1 oad flscr ipt
you were doing
should get the
reading.
POKE 35440, oo:
Now each time
no matter what
before, you
correct Length
If you keep
Timachine on
disks and load them
own Autostarts, th
will just not occur
interaction between
programs and Omnibus
the clash.
Mscript and
their separate
Mia their
s problem
It's the
these
that causes
It's the curse of complexity;
but that's what make programming
the TS2868 challenging and good
fun, don't you agree? Let's hear
from you readers who have
anything to add to all this
stuff this time.
Bob Mitchell 29 Uild Briarway
Uillowdale Ont M2 J 2L2 494-5268.
TORONTO
TIHEX-SIHCLRIR USERS CLUB
1 REM This program will produce the globe aboveL
10 FOR ::=-87. 5 TO 87.5:_LET i = INT ( SQR < 7744-x*x ) -. 5 > +. 5.
20 FOR y=-i TO i: IF x+2*y+2*SQR < 7744-x*x-y*y ><RND*264 THEN
,0T x+127. 5, y+87. 5
30 NEXT y: NEXT x
SINC-LINK
QL IPS
By Hugh H Howie
QL BASHERS
Why are there so many QL Bashers out
there? Some have never even tried the
QL. Anyone I have spoken to, and has
used the QL has nothing but praise for
it. The main gripe is that it is not IBM
compatible. Most folks I have spoken are
very quick to praise the power of the
QL. Except in a very few cases it is
lauded as being better than most PCs on
the market, even to-day.
There is nothing wrong with the QL other
than the fact it was pushed onto the
market before it was ready. Even to-day,
the QL is a powerful machine. Don't let
anyone try to tell you otherwise.
What prompted me to write this, was that
last week I received a letter from
Marinus Heuseveldt in Florida, the only
person who put pen to paper in reply to
my suggestion of a QL Hardware Library,
and also Tuition Course. I would like to
Quote from his letter :-
"Your idea of a hardware library (QL)
sounds good to me, but there may be a
question of how much use it will get. It
is one thing to hardware hack a TS1000-
still another the 2068, and yet another,
a QL. To the hardware hacker there
wouldn't be any reluctance to work the
QL over, however, to the less capable,
experienced, there would be"
He also pointed out a few difficulties
with a correspondence course in
programming. A positive letter with many
valid observations. Very constructive.
Very welcome. I would like to thank
Marinus for his well argued comments,
and for taking the time and trouble to
write. This article was prompted by his
letter to me. Just demonstrates what
participation in communication can do.
We need more of it. Constructive stuff.
In other words, what he is saying is
that the QL is a much more complex
machine to hack than the 2068.
So there !
Here is another quote, this time from a
well known programmer of QL and IBM
experience. His experience is mainly in
the ARCHIVE field, but he is also well
versed is all aspects of the QL. Bill
Cable is a prolific contributer to
UPDATE, and his articles are always
looked forward to by the QL fraternity.
In other words he is an expert, probably
one of the best in the world on the QL.
This extract is from the April 1990
issue of UPDATE.
Bill Cable writes:-
"How do we judge the QLs performance
against the other machines? 1. QL much
slower in its screen handling. This is
evident in QUILL and ARCHIVE. I tried
SPEEDSCREEN and LIGHTNING but they
didn't improve the times. Some programs
still manage to give fast screens. The
EDITOR and TEXT87 are examples. Also the
QL was multitasking QUILL while DBEasy
was being run. That didn't affect the
speed of doing the tasks because QUILL
was sitting idle. None of the other
computers can multitask. None of the
other computers can network either,
without expensive equipment. And the AT
machines cost 2 to 5 times as much as
the QL. At some point I will try these
same tasks on the THOR and pass on the
results. It should be much closer to the
AT machines. If you were to judge the QL
purely on the response times it shows
its age. If you judge it on its overall
features taking into account its
powerful operating system, its cost, and
how much you can accomplish with it then
it still can hold its own against most
PCs."
End of Quote.
That is what the experts think,
(me too)
The DBEasy program Bill mentions is one
of his own creations, and is a database
manager for ARCHIVE, permitting the
creation and managing of databases for
many applications, allowing switching
between databases. He has also written a
great many other Archive Programs worthy
of your attention. He is a regular
contributer to UPDATE Magazine, called
"The Cable Column"
May his shadow never grow less.
§§§
SINC-LIIMK
LISTING FOR DISK MENU MAKER
1 REM DISK MENU 910216 LDC
2 REM based on the program developed by George Chambers
& Bob Mi tchel 1
3 PRINT CHR$ 2: CLS : ON ERR RESET
4 RANDOMIZE USR 100: OPEN #4,"dd"
5 LET c=100: BORDER 6: INK 9: PAPER 5: CLS
10 DIM X$( 16) : FOR i=0 TO 15: LET q=PEEK ( 26660+ i ) : IF q=0 THEN
GO TO 15
11 LET x$( i+1 )=CHR$ q: NEXT i
15 PRINT AT 1,1; PAPER 1; INK 9; "MENU FOR DISK "; PAPER 2;x$' '
19 RESTORE c: LET n=0: PRINT
20 READ a$: READ b$: IF a$o"STOP" THEN LET n=n+1 : GO SUB 7000
: GO TO 20
35 PLOT INK 3; 0,0: DRAW 255,0: DRAW 0, 175: DRAW -255,0: DRAW 0
,-175: PLOT 1,1: DRAW 253,0: DRAW 0, 173: DRAW -253,0: DRAW 0,-173
: INK 9
38 PLOT 9,20: DRAW 237 ,0: DRAW 0, 135: DRAW -237,0: DRAW 0,-135
50 PRINT AT 20,7; PAPER 2; FLASH 1 ; "PRESS A TO " ;CHR$ (n+64) ; "
ONLY" ; FLASH 0
70 POKE 23658,8: PAUSE 0: LET n$=INKEY$
80 IF n$<"A" OR n$>CHR$ ((n+1)+64) THEN GO TO 70
85 POKE 23658,0: BORDER 1: PAPER 5: INK 9: CLS
90 RESTORE 100: FOR i=1 TO CODE n$-64: READ a$ : READ b$: NEXT i
91 LET t$=b$(LEN b$-1 TO )
92 IF t$~"CT" THEN GO SUB 5E3 : RANDOMIZE USR c: PRINT b$: PRIN
T CHR$ 2: PRINT "END OF FILE. . .PRESS ANY KEY" : PAUSE 0: GO TO 1
94 IF t$(1)="B" THEN RANDOMIZE USR c: LOAD b$
98 RANDOMIZE USR c: LOAD b$CODE : STOP
1001 DATA "STOP"," "
1002 GO TO 1
3200 RANDOMIZE USR c : GO TO 4 : PRINT #4: NEW
5000 INK 0: PAPER 7: BORDER 7: CLS
5010 RANDOMIZE USR c: LOAD " tasw i . Cx "CODE
5020 RANDOMIZE USR 64300: PRINT CHR$ 3;
5030 ON ERR GO TO 1 : RETURN
7000 IF LEN a$<24 THEN PRINT " " ;CHR$ (n+64) ; " - " ; a$ : RETURN
7010 PRINT " ";CHR$ (n+64);" - ";a$( TO 24): PRINT TAB 6;a$(25 T
0 ) : RETURN
8000 CLEAR 65535: RESTORE 8010: FOR i =0 TO 32: READ a: POKE 2431 1
+i ,a: NEXT I: RANDOMIZE USR 243 1 1 : RUN
8010 DATA 243,205,98,0, 1 75 , 50 , 29 , 32 , 50 , 32 , 32 , 205 , 126,0,205, 123,0,
33,4,50, 17,36, 104, 1 , 16,0,237, 1 76 , 58 , 100 , 0 , 25 1 , 201
8887 STOP
8888 CLS : INPUT AT 10 , 0 ;" DESTINATION DRIVE #? " ;dd: LET c=100: R
ANDOMIZE USR c: POKE 8200,8195: LET s=USR 1 10: LET sd=INT (s/4-(s
>8) ) : RANDOMIZE USR c: GO TO sd: RANDOMIZE USR c: LOAD "taswi .Cx"
CODE : RANDOMIZE USR c: GO TO dd: RANDOMIZE USR c: SAVE "taswi .Cx
"CODE 63223, 1492
8889 DELETE 8888,8889
9999 CLEAR : POKE 23730, PEEK 23641 : POKE 23731 , PEEK 23642+1 : CLS
: PRINT AT 10,0; "PRESS <D> KEY FOR AUTOSTART SAVE" : RANDOMIZE USR
102: GO TO 8000
SINC-LINK
ZX81 NOTE Al V 71 DATE 91/02/21 TIME 9:37:25 PAGE
Periodically its nice to set up your ZX81 and have a little fun.
I like to think of games in three categories. 1) ARCADE - these*are
the kill the cleons type, pong etc. In the early days of home computing
these games flourished but today there is no way to compete with
Nintendo. 2) ADVENTURE - these are the games were you try to find
your way interactively through the castle and get the treasure.
I have found a few good examples that run on my ZX81, for example
TREASURE HUNT. 3) MIND - these are the interesting games because
they do not require a great deal of graphics just a good thinking
mind, for example THE TOWERS OF HANOI. It is the last two types of
games that I am searching for. I have looked through our club
library and can find several examples of the ARCADE games and
a few ADVENTURE games, but very little MIND games. I suspect that
there are a lot of these games gathering dust in the bottom of
your filing cabinets but I would like to see them. Have you
got some great MIND game that you think would stump the whiz?
Heres the deal. Send me whatever you have in the way of MIND or
a really good ADVENTURE game, either listing or on tape. I will
edit and accumulate them into a set of games. If you send me
something, you will get a copy of the complete set of all
games sent in.
Send your stuff to:
Ron Campbell
37 Sir Galahad Place
Markham, Ontario
L3P 3K7
- T H E: M □ R THE R H LIGHT"
TORONTO T I HEX-5 I HCLfl I R USERS CLUB
SINC-LINK
323 1/2 N. Church Street
Bowling Green, OH 43402
November 19, 1990
Dear George,
I got the November Sine-Link today, and thought I would
write you concerning packing numbers, as was discussed in the TS
Bulletin, p. 4. (By the way, there was no page 2 on the copy I
got. Others may have had that problem as well.)
In general, you can place 2 numbers into 1 byte, but not 3
as was attempted by this routine - unless you can't use every
number. However, you can fit 7 digits in 3 bytes, by extending
the normal method used to double-POKE . This would look as
follows: (The Variable ph is presumed to be the phone number.)
1 REM (at least 15 characters)
5 REM Telephone number storage
10 FOR 1 = 1 TO 3
15 LET hi = INT (ph/256)
20 POKE 16524+i,ph-hi*256
25 LET ph = hi
30 NEXT i
40 REM handles any 7 -dig it number
50 PRINT "TEL NO. ••;
60 FOR 1 = 3 TO 1 STEP -1
70 LET ph = 256*ph+PEEK(165244-i )
8 0 NEXT i
90 PRINT ph
9 9 STOP
I should note that this routine would handle any kind of a
number provided it was less than 16,000,000. As for marking
invalid (non-existent) numbers, there are over 6 million left
over, so that should be easy.
Actually, there are fewer phone numbers than the 10 million
I was presuming above. First, no 7-digit phone number can begin
with a 0 or 1, the operatop or long-distance codes. Secondly,
the first 3 digits must not correspond to an area code, or the
phone company's switching circuits would get confused. Since
all area codes have a second digit of 0 or 1, we could compute
there are really only 6,400,000 valid 7-digit phone numbers. It
still takes 3 bytes to store it, but we have a lot of spare
digits.
If we wanted to use 10-digit phone numbers, we could use
this to our advantage. Normally, 10 digits would require 5
bytes. But there are enough un-usable numbers so that we could
get by with only 4, and have the entire area code in 1 byte.
This requires a little more trickery, but not much. In the
following part of a program, presume (ac) is the area code, and
(ph) is the phone number:
1 REM (at least 15 characters)
5 REM Store (ac) and (ph)
10 LET ac=ac-80*INT (ac/100)
15 POKE 16524, ac
SING— LINK
20 FOR 1 = 1 TO 3
2 5 LET hi=INT(ph/256 )
30 POKE 16524+i,ph
35 LET ph=hi
4 0 NEXT i
45 REM phone number stored
50 PRINT "TEL NO. ";
55 LET ac=PEEK 16524
56 LET ac=ac+80*INT (ac/20)
6 0 IF AO0 THEN PRINT " ( " ; ac; " ) " ;
65 FOR 1=3 TO 1 STEP -1
70 LET ph=ph*256+PEEK(16524+i)
75 NEXT i
80 IF ph>0 THEN PRINT ph
85 IF ph=0 THEN PRINT "None"
99 STOP
Of course, you would need a line to put the phone number
into ac and ph. I am using a 0 in either to indicate it is
missing, since neither can be all O's.
Similar techniques could be used in any field with data
from a restricted set of characters - anything numeric, or even
postal codes. If we wished to use end-of-field markers and
such, we could change every 256 to a lower number, like 250, or
anything down to about 220. Anything below 220, though, and our
7-digit phone number would need at least 4 bytes of storage, and
1 for the area code.
Well, that's all for right now. Also note that on a 2068,
we would change the 16524 to some other number. In a practical
program, you would want a variable instead - we can't POKE
everything into the same location. Or we could change the POKEs
and PEEKS to use CODE and CHR$ and put the number into a string
or string array.
I am almost done with ray version of Statistical Analysis
for single variable distributions, which I am writing for Bob
Mitchell. The program he had, which he said he pulled out of a
magazine, was a mixture of different routines for one and two
variables, which made it confusing to use, so I thought I would
seperate them and clear it up some.
Anyway, I will probably write you again in a couple of
weeks when I am satisfied with it. I'll be in Windsor this
week, but I'll be back by next week - you may remember I always
go to Windsor for my American Thanksgiving break. So bye for
now, and peace.
S incerely
SINC-LINK
The last version of ARCHIVE, called flRCdev and ARCrtn, introduces the
possibility to call external nachine code routine to conplenent the
fiRCHIUE programing language. This is also true for the PSION XCHRN6E
software.
ye load the external routines, with LOAD USR 'filename'
the default extension is '_pnc' .
and we call then with LET x=USR(pari,'par2*') .
The first paraneter, PARI, is a nunber and the second one (PAR2$) , a
string. Note that even if PAR2$ is a variable, we have to put quotes
around it. The variable X will contain an error code in the QDOS
tradition.
From the programing point of view, the routine nust begin with a 6
bytes header like this: DO 'pncO'
OC.U routing J ength
The register DO contains the value of PARI and AO is pointing to
PAR2*. The first byte of PAR2I is length of the string.
Only one 'jane' file can be in nenory. But it is possible to develop a
toolkit for fiRCHIUE and use PARI to select the different routines by
testing the value of DO in our program
ex. RQU7INEJ} DBF dO,ROUTINE_l
ROUTINE.! DBF d0,R0UTINE_2
...
RTS
ROUTINES DBF dO, ERROR
ERROR
flOUEQ *-15,d0
RTS
PAR2$ can pass nore than one paraneter by using the ascii code of each
character. Uith this nethod each paraneter can have a value between
0-255. For example, if the routine 2 of our imaginary toolkit is to
produce a beep, the first paraneter can be the tone and the second,
the length. For exanpie, if we need a tone of 20 of length 5, this can
be coded with LET beep*=ChR(20)4CHR<5)
and called with LET x=USR(2,'beep*') .
The following utility will pernit to fiRCHIUE to comunicate via the
SER2 port, we will use it to dial a phone nunber by sending the
appropriate comand to a noden.
In fiRCHIUE, load SER2_pnc with LOAD USR 'SER2' . If you want to dial a
nunber and your noden is HAYES compatible then type
LET nunber$='fiTDT1234567'4CHR(13) .
'flTOF is a comand to dial a nunber on a TOUCH TONE line, if you have
a PULSE line use 'ATOP' instead. You have to terninate the variable
nunber* with CHR03) to force to noden to execute the comand.
To start the dialing type LET x=USR(speed, 'nunber*') where speed
represents to baud rate specific to your noden. Speed equals to 0 for
75 bauds, 1 for 300 , 2 for 600, 3 for 1200 , 4 for 2400, 5 for 4800, 6
for 9600 vtd 7 for 19200!
Uhile the noden dials the nunber pick up the phone. After the
dialing, the noden nust hang up the phone. Just send a carriage retirrs
to the noden, this will put it off line right away.
let nunber*^ RTDT1234567' +chr (13)
let hangup*=chr<13)
let x=usrQ,'nunberf')
print 'Press a key to put the noden
off line after the dialing.'
input dumy*
let xsusrO/hangup*')
Say you have a database containing a nenbership list for your bowling
club. The phone nunber of each newer is given by the field phone*. To
call Joseph, find his record and issue the following comands to dial
his nunber:
let nunber*='flMs+phone*+chr(13)
let x=usr<3/nunber*')
To create SER2j3nc, type in the BRSIC loader and run it.
I repeat, this will not work with ARCHIUE 2.3 or 2.35. You need
fiRCdev/flRCrtn (also called fiRCHIUE run-tine) or the PSION XCHANGE
which is a conbinaison of QUIUyflRCHIUE/EIKEL/flBflCUS into one big
progran. I have developped SER2jnc with XCHRN6E v3.27, I don't have
ARCdev.
SER2_pmc BASIC LOADER
100 REttark LOADER for SER2jmc
110 REHark by Real 6agnon, ttontreai Quebec decSO
120 :
130 CIS: INPUT "SflUE SER2_pnc UHERE? (default flpO?";sauve*
140 IF LEN<sauve$)=0:sauve*="flpl_"
150 PRINT "One nonent please.";
160 :
170 RESTORE 1000
180 nenoire=RESPR(5l2) :base_nenoire=nenoire
190 conpte=0 : checksun=6567 : checkne=0
200 :
210 REPeat loop
220 IF EOFiEXIT loop
230 READ byte: POKE nemire,bute:nemire=nenoire+i
240 conpte=conpte+l
245 checkjte=checkm+byte
250 PRINT "."]
260 END REPeat loop
265 :
270 IF checkm<>checksun:PRINT v'Checksun incorrect" :ST0P
280 :
290 S8YTES sauve*8'SER2_pnc? ,base.nenoire,conpte
300 PRINT '0k!'sST0P
310 :
1000 DfiTfl 112, 109,
1001 DATA 0, 66,
1002 DfiTfl 78, 65,
1003 OfiTfi 65, 250,
1004 OfiTfi 102, 0,
1005 DflTB 34, ~
1006 DfiTfl
1007 ORTR
1008 DfiTfl
1009 DfiTfl
o2'
75,
75,
Si
99,
48,
o,
86,
38,
72,
65,
250
50,
24,
81,
200,
255,
252,
112,
18
255,
38,
60,
0,
0,
o,
0
36,
112,
1,
78,
66,
74,
64
o,
5'
27,
?2,
130,
118,
255
112,
112,
I
78,
67,
2'
64,
102,
0
78,
68,
114,
■8'
6
50,
105,
o,
75,
192,
?;
44
176;
3,
96
18
3?;
128
12
SINC-LINK
The Quebec Link.
* filena* : SER2_pk vision 1.8
X date : decetter 1998
X tochine code extension for ARCHIVE 2.38 and XCHflNGE
X to add the possibility to talk directly to the
X SER2 port.
X
X LORD with the corand LORD USR 'ser2'
X USE with the coaund
X LET resuU=USR<speed,'strinQS')
t uhere speed is the baud rate to be used
X 8=75 1=388 2=689 3=1288 4=2488
X 5=4888 6=9688 7=19288
I uhere strings* is the variable no*
* containing the string to be sent.
X note that you have to put quotes around
X it.
X
X the routine returns an error code in the
X variable result if any. 8 = no error
X other = error
X
X This prograi is donated to the public drain
I written by Real Gagnon and HIC LOGIQUE
X 8286 Stt*i>ert P.O. Box 1393
I Montreal (Quebec) Place du Pare
I CflNflOR H2P 1Z3 Montreal Quebec
X CflNflOfl H2U 2R4
HT.BflUD
IO.OPEN
IO.aOSE
IOSSTRG
THIS.JOB
neaoer
equ
equ
equ
equ
equ
dc.b
dc.u
S12
SI
12
17
-1
'pK8'
finish-start
set the baud rate
open a channel
close a channel
send a string to a channel
A8 contains the pointer of the string to be sent.
08 contains the baud- rate to be used
set the baud rate
start aove.l o8,a3 preserve the string address
lea baud_choice,a8 find the correct baud rate
baud, loop tove.u (aB)+,dl
dbra d8.baud.loop
■oveq tnT_6flOO,d8
trap tl
X
t
X
open a enamel for SER2
■oveq ITHIS.JOB,dl
■ove.l W,d3 ue open a channel for a device
lea devicenaK,a8
•oveq «O„0PEH,d8
trap 12 open the channel
tst d8 error?
bne error.de tected
R8 contains the CHfHfi ID (needed fx 10 SSTRG)
nou ue have to send the string pointed by B4
length of the string
iove.b (a3)+,d2
ext.u d2
■oveq H,d3 no tiieout
■ove.l a3.al string address
■oveq ♦Iu„SSTRG,d8
trap 13
tst d8
bne error .detected
X
>
X
ax it. send ■oveq
trap
errordetected rts
nou, ue close the channel <A8 still contains CHRN€L 10
«I0_CL0SE,d8
12
device_noM
baud.choice
finish
dc.u
dc.b
dc.u
end
SER2ir'
go back to flRCMUE/XCHRNGE
length of the device nose
no handshake and no parity
75 ,388 ,688, 1286 ,2488 ,4888 ,9688, 19288
SINC-LINK
13
MIKE'S NOTEBOOK
By: Michael J. Di Rienzo
(NOTE: REPRINTING OR REPRODUCING
THIS COLUMN WITHOUT THE EXPRESSED
WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR IS
HEREBY PROHIBITED. FOR PERMISSION,
WRITE THE AUTHOR IN CARE OF THIS
PUBLICATION. )
If you are used to SAVEing SCREEN*
files, you may have noticed that the
file size is rather large especially
if you LOAD or SAVE using cassette
storage medium* The file is 69 12
bytes long. Another problem to
overcome is that if you want to
store more than four or five
SCREEN* es in RAM memory, there is
hardly any memory left for your
programs. This months utility will
COMPRESS a typical SCREEN* file up
to as much as 1/2 its usual size, in
addition, a header is automatically
included in the SAVED file which
will resolve the compressed SCREEN*
back to its full size onto the
screen by simply using RANDOMIZE USR
(address) . The following program
will SAVE the compressed SCREEN*
CODE at address 40246 and you will
be shown the file length if you wish
to write it down. When you are ready
to LOAD the compressed file into
your own program, you can LOAD it to
any legal address then "call" that
address to get your expanded
SCREEN*. The following program will
POKE in the CODE th en prompt you to
INPUT the file name of the SCREEN*
that you want to compress. It will
then LOAD it and temporarily store
it. Next you'll be asked what name
you want to give the compressed
SCREEN* . The SCREEN* will be
instantly compressed and you will be
notified of the start address and
byte length of the file. Now, a
prompt to press any key when you are
ready to SAVE your file. Don't
worry, your compressed file is
already stored at address 40246 .
This utility can be easily modified
by you to work with any disk system.
I use this utility alot to animate
as many as 15 compressed SCREEN* by
LOADing them consecutively in memory
then calling them in sequence to
simulate animation. The CODE is not
relocatable and is 132 bytes long.
Have fun!
•CMPRES*
By Michael J. Di Rienzo
10 CLEAR 36611: LET store=3672
0s LET recal I =36732: LET compres
s=36612: GO SUB 100
20 INPUT "What is the file nam
e to LOAD? • ;n*
30 LOAD n* SCREEN* : RANDOMIZE
USR store
40 INPUT "What is the file nass
e to SAVE? • ; n* : RANDOMIZE USR
recal 1
50 RANDOMIZE USR compress: LET
L=USR 40192: LET L=L-40246
60 PRINT INK 2; PAPER 5;AT 10,
0 ; BFi 1 e: ■ • ■ ; n* ; ■ " "CODE 40246 , • ; L
» FLASH ljAT 11,5; -Press any key
to SAVE*: PAUSE 0
70 SAVE n*CODE 40246 , L
80 CLS : RANDOMIZE USR 40246:
PRINT INK I? FLASH If AT 10,0: "To
resolve the compressed file ba
ck to the screen in the futureRA
NDOMIZE USR (Starting address wh
ere CODE is LOADed ! ) ■
90 STOP
100 LET t=0
110 FOR N=36612 TO 36743
120 READ a: POKE n,a: LET t=t+a
130 NEXT n: IF t<> 12070 THEN PR
INT FLASH 1; -Data Error! Recheck
DATA line.-: STOP
140 RETURN
150 DATA 17,0,157,33,16,143,1,9
8,0,237, 176,201, 197,209,33, 100,0
,25,235,33,0,64, 14 , 1 , 126 , 167 , 40 ,
9,254,255,40,5,237, 160,3,24,21,7
1,121,60,35,40,7, 126,184,32,3, 12
,24,243, 120, 18, 19, 121, 18, 19, 14, 1
, 124,254,91,32,217,213, 193,201, 1
7,0,64,221,33,46,0,221,9, 122,254
,91,200,221, 126,0, 167,40, 10,254,
255,40,6, 18, 19,221,35,24,236,221
,70, 1, 18, 19, 16,252,221,35,221,35
, 24 , 223
160 DATA 17,0,157,33,0,64,1,0,2
4,237, 176,201,17,0,64,33,0, 157, 1
,0,24,237, 176 ,201
SI NC— LINK
C0mDffiS5 36612 8F04 LD DE , 4U 1 'dZ
V 36615 8F07 LD HL , 36624
36618 8F0A LD BC,98
36621 8F0D LDIR
36623 8F0F RET
36624 8F10 PUSH BC
36625 8F11 POP DE
36626 8F12 LD HL, 100
36629 8F15 ADD HL , DE
36630 8F16 EX DE, HL
36631 8F17 LD HL , 16384
36634 8F1A LD C, 1;
36636 8F1C LD A, (HL )
36637 8F1D AND A
36638 8F1E JR Z, 36649
36640 8F20 CP 255?
36642 8F22 JR Z, 36649
36644 8F24 LDI
36646 8F26 INC BC
36647 8F27 JR 36670
36649 8F29 LD B, A
36650 8F2A LD A,C
36651 8F2B INC A
36652 8F2C INC HL
36653 8F2D JR Z, 36662
36655 8F2F LD A, CHL)
36656 8F30 CP B
36657 8F31 JR NZ, 36662
36659 8F33 INC C
36660 8F34 JR 36649
36662 8F36 LD A, B
36663 8F37 LD <DE>,A
36664 8F38 INC DE
36665 8F39 LD A,C
36666 8F3A LD <DE),A
36667 8F3B INC DE
36668 8F3C LD C, 1 ?
36670 8F3E LD A,H
36671 8F3F CP 91 J C
36673 8F41 JR NZ , 36636
36675 8F43 PUSH DE
36676 8F44 POP BC
36677 8F45 RET
36678
36681
36685
36687
36688
36690
36691
36694
36695
36697
36699
36701
36702
36703
36705
36707
36710
36711
36712
36714
36716
36718
8F46
8F49
8F4D
8F4F
8F50
8F52
8F53
8F56
8F57
8F59
8F5B
8F5D
8F5E
8F5F
8F61
LD DE, 16384
LD IX,46
ADD IX, BC
LD A,D
CP 91; C
RET Z
LD A, CIX+O)
AND A
JR Z, 36707
CP 255;
JR Z, 36707
LD (DE) f A
INC DE
INC IX
JR 36687
8F63 LD B, CIX+1)
8F66 LD CDE) , A
8F67 INC DE
8F68 DJNZ 36710
8F6A INC IX
8F6C INC IX
8F6E JR 36687
store 36720 8F70 LD DE, 40192
~ 36723 8F73 LD HL f 16384
36726 8F76 LD BC,6144
36729 8F79 LDIR
36731 8F7B RET
recaft 36732 8F7C LD DE, 16384
36735 8F7F LD HL, 40192
36738 8F82 LD BC,6144
36741 8F85 LDIR
36743 8F87 RET
• 06714 QFOO LP Df, 1^
O Z, MEAAJPER I hi G S ccrucC OAfE-LIMERS
6// Hugh Howie,.
' To then, night I woa Jyittin thinkin.
U^JLOtly I jUAt -tyUt. ' tiA QjOU>i&SL.
A long time, ago I aAked you to *end in
^ome, ONE-LINERS , nothing came. 04 the,
njzjqueAt, bat I Atitl think, thene, one. a
tot oi one,-tinenA out thene, juAt waiting
4 oa. who-even, to <6<md them in. So git
going guy<6 {and dollA oIao oj> counAe,)
ixfaile. ^ittin thinkin, I came, up with
-borne, thoughts might be, o£ inteneAt to
someone,. Don't know who , but you. neven.
know in thiA Hi-Tcck wonJLd we. live, in
juAt who might be, in a. mood to tiAten to
^om&rono, who iA -^ittin, and thinkin
nathen, than ^omerone, who iA juAt ^ittin.
you iA ^ittin thinkin. you. might juAt
4ay Aomethin Month heanin. That iA i&
you. hoA a mind to talkin. Hone. iA Aome.
o4 my thinkin, i& you. ha* a mind to
liAtnin.
Say you wnXte, a tot o4 tetter and ^ave,
them to ViAh on. MDU , giving them name*
accjonjding to whom you, ana, wnAJbing.
{Almost ^aid "you. one. wniting to!"
( nexien, end a sentence. with a.
pnjzpoMtion. ) Alt the, time, I do it.
{Vnjopo^itJionA one. di^ienjinti )
when you want to njzcall when, and what
you. wnote,, you, have, to go thnough a
whole, ^tning o£ name* on the. DZR 04 youn,
ViAh an, MDf . Ane, you, AtUUL with me,?
But TK2, including Tnjumpcand, ha* a,
corrmmd to hetp you,. Say you wntte. to
Tom on. Dick on, Jack., {ha ha you, thought
i woa going to *ay Hanny) Anyway you,
want to necaJUl the, lettenA to Dave.. Att
you, have, to do iA type, in: -
"DZR FLVlJDaveJ'
That. iA 14 you, uAe, "Dave." a* the,
ne4enence.. Attest, the, 'ENTER' you, wait a.
second and what do you, know, up on the,
^cneen cornet a tiAt o& the, tetter you
wnote, to Vave,. Tnjy it ion, the,
expesiXence,.
Hene, iA anothen, tittle, gem. You, one,
lending something to the, pninten,,
gnaphicA on. something tike, that, and you,
want to Msip in a tittle, corrrmnt at a
given, point {tine,). Tnjy thiA:_
Open #3,^l7: Vnint #3, "MESSAGE" : cJbo^e,
#3
The, quotes one, eAAential. The, "MESSAGE"
you, type, in at that point wilt go to the.
pnAnten,. Tnjy it out o4 cujUo^ity !
Now hens, iA anothen. cnazy thing. I have,
no idea, what uAe4ut punjpo^e. it could
^enjue,, but I wWl Jhane. it with you,
anyway. No doubt someone. haA a uAe, 4 on,
thiA. It AaveA a. J>cneen to Itjp on, mdv ,
on, whatever, and the, details, one, on page,
57 04 the, KejywondA ^ectix>n 04 the, QL
Nanuat. Uhy not tnjy it out?
SbyteA mdv1_4CAjeen_data,,2~17 ,2*15
{"AcnjeenjiataJ' being youn, title, on,
whatever.) wilt ^ave, a Acneen to mdv 1 . To
nejuoven, it, tny:-
LbyteA mdv 1 j^enjesm-jdata,, (737072)
{Note,:- 2*17 = 737072 S 2*15 = 32768)
Tnjy putting/typing something on top 04
the, -saved Acneen you, have, juM.
ne&ovened, 4ove. it cu> above,, bning it
bach, to the. Acneen and <t>ee, what you. get..
Found out by happenstance, nejcentty , that
when wnXtXhg a tetten, on, anticte, about a
pnjognam, that i4 I wanted to include, the,
tilting in the, anJticte,, alt I had to do
ujcl-6 impont it I Hene. I waJ> nunning two
paAAeA to get, it acno^. To Impont, the,
lifting to QuitJl you, rruAt have, patience,,
it can take, a ^eiu minuteA. In text&7
uAying the, ASCII option, the. tnanAjen, iA
almost, inMantaneouA . ThiA iA one, coAe,
whene. Quilt wWL impont a iite, which iA
NOT an exp IMjl. text&7 wilt impont. juAt
about anything. Aint science, amazin?
PaAA me, the, aApinAn. toibeJl thiA thinkin
iA huntin, that' -6 night, the, bnxtwn jug,
up on the, top JheM — thankA VaboJL.
I neaJLly do hope, I have, not boned you.
Have. 4un. I am going bach, to juAt
Pippin. Bye,.
SNRKRZZZ 5
SINC-LINK
15
SOFTWARE REVIEW: OMUICALC 2.
Up to now for ny spreadsheet* requirements, I have been using
Uu-Calc which was the only pertinent program available to ne;
Uu-Calc has one major shortcoming: it can only handle numbers up
to seven characters including a decimal point (that is to say,
amounts up to S9999 . 99 only). Thus a value of $10888.86 cannot
be handled. That is a severe limitation in the 1998's.
On seeing a recent catalogue from Jack Dohany (of Mscript fame)
uhieh contained a listing "flnnicalc", I urot 0 to him and asked
for a copy. It arrived recently and I went to work trying out
this spreadsheet which includes production of histograms Cbar
charts) based on input data. Jack provided a loader tailored for
the Larken system but not for my particular printer, the Fast ext
88. I made some changes to the loader to adapt it to my
situation. Essentially, I amended it to use the LKDOS printer
driver code and decided to use my Graphics 24 code to do the
histograms and any other SCREENS copies.
There is a very thorough manual provided with the software and
the following is a brief summary of some highlights and
comparison with Uu-Calc, where appropriate:
1. First and foremost <*> : there is no provision for saving or
loading data via disk drive. This must all be done on cassette
tape. Jack says he might try to modify the code to handle disk
drive saves and loads if there is enough interest <ie, if enough
people order copies of the program, I would guess). I did
however find that an HMI save could do the job quite well, with
some reservations. This is done by pressing the Larken MMI
button, then pressing the appropriate key <1 fo 4). The program
uses 18 tracks but that is no problem. Loading this back merely
requires the command < RANDOMIZE USR 188: LORD NMI-S1 . CM'CODE>
for one saved using the <1> key.
Note <*): There is a Spectrum version which allows the use of
nicrodrives and RS232 interface as well as networking. I am not
able to investigate these options.
2. My loader allows for the setting of printer parameters Cleft
margin, line length, PICR, ELITE or CONDENSED mode). If the data
is loaded via tape, all printing works as expected. However,
when loading via NMI, the printer driver must be preset and I
did this using my Omnibus <Set Printer) option. Rlso, if
histograms are to be printed, the Graphics 24 code must be
preset at this time. Other bit-image copying utilities could be
used by doing a SCREENS save via NMI first ; eg, you could save a
SCREENS and load it into Pixel Print to use its graphics
printing option.
3. I have tested the histogram option and it appears to work
quite well. Via tape, there is a choice to save or load either
data or workarea . The workarea option allows values to be
transferred back and forth between the spreadsheet and the
workarea. The latter has many uses, among them being: the
plotting of histograms; moving values around within the
spreadsheet <ie, columns or rows); communicating between
spreadsheets. The last application could be used, for example,
to move the closing balance from the end of one year's
spreadsheet to the beginning of the next year's spreadsheet.
Such transporting of work areas would require their saving and
loading via tape until the program is modified for disk drive.
4. Input error detection is provided through different BEEP
sounds or error messages; this is quite effective in keeping you
on track, fl list of error- messages is contained in the manual.
5. Values may be expressed in t wo-dec i mal -p 1 ace format or
integer format. It's all one or the other, though, unlike
Uu-Calc which allows some columns to be displayed in one format
and others in a different one. The result is a minor irritation
Ceg, 188 days shows as 188.88).
6. Depending on the spreadsheet size, calculations are very
quick compared with Uu-Calc and saves via tape are quite short.
Use of tape is not much of a problem but seems rather archaic.
Iterative <ie, repetitive) calculations can be performed and
there is much more detail on this in the manual.
16
SINC-LINK
7. Uery large numbers can be handled but you must reserve TWO
columns for large numbers and input them into the right column
since display of large numbers is spilled over into the left
column. This is a vast improvement over Uu-Calc if you
for large numbers.
have need
8. Equations are similar to formulas in Uu-Calc but values at
the cursor position can be viewed via a separate option
<D:Decode>. It also returns codes to signify if a cursor
position contains a blank, value, text, row total, row
sub-total, column total or column sub-total.
9. The size of a spread sheet can be up to 99 columns siciross or
258 rows deep; that is significantly more than the 58 by 58 grid
of Uu-Calc. Rll the mathematical functions of the TS2868 can be
used making it easy to build up sophisticated models for
financial, engineering and other applications which might
include tax bands, differential interest rate, conditional
expressions and variable overheads.
18. The
Sinclai
15 rows
char act
can ' t h
is done
screen
Shift k
wi ndow.
times t
screen di
r characte
at a time
er— per— 1 in
ave everyt
in t wo mo
i s sh i f ted
ey not pre
But at le
o let you
splay in the 32-charact er-per- 1 i ne standard
r set shows a window of only three columns and
plus the column and row headings, ft 64
e font would have been an improvement but you
hing. Using the arrow keys to move the cursor
des : with the Caps Shift pressed, the whole
one column or row at a time. With the Caps
ssed, the cursor moves about the current
ast the headings stay on the screen at all
know where you are, unlike Uu-Calc.
11. Text can be entered into any location where the cursor is
resting but is limited to all letters Call Capitals), all
numbers, all punctuation marks and arithmetic operators which
occupy only one character. Only the first seven characters are
accepted and spaces count as a character.
12. There is an option <V> for Vear which provides a fast method
of feeding in the months of the year, either in columns or rows.
In summary, Onnicalc 2 is recommended to those who are looking
for something better than Uu-Calc; there are a few shortcomings
but on balance, it does a good job and should satisfy most
requirements. It is priced at US$18.88.
Finally, Jack Dohany also provided a Public Notice dated Jan 1,
1991 which in part advises that he is out of the business of
supporting the TS2868 and that he will now concentrate on
programming and developing hardware for it. Anyone wishing
copies of programs he formerly offered should now write to
e i t her :
RMG Enterprises
1419 1/2 7th Street
Oregon City
OR 97845
or
Ed Grey Enterprises
PO Box 2186
Ing lewood
CR 98385.
Prepared by Bob Mitchell 918121.
SINC-LINK
TS2068 COMPUTER REPAIRS
Richard Burt wrote to me about his experience in getting his Ts2068
repaired. I think meny members would be interested in hearing of his
experience. We have published Dan Elliot's repair list in a recent issue
of Sine Link. Richard's address is:
R.R. #5 Box 157
Bel I ev i 1 1 e, Ont . ,
CANADA K8N UZ5
In your last letter to me you ask for an article that might
be of interest to club members, well I don't know if this is an
article or a report on a personal experience that happen to me.
I will call this "IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH". This may sound
like a spiritual question, but to any one who has had a Sinclair
computer die on them, they may have ask that very question. In
Nov. I had one of my TS2068 die on me, it would not initialize,
and the screen display was half there. I made a few phone calls
to see if anyone could repair this and I was turned down by
qualified people citing no repair experience, I was able to buy
another backup unit from you. I then gave a call to Dan El 1 iot
of Promise Land Electronics, now called Computer Classic, to see
if it could be repaired, and after a conversation with Dan, I
decided to send the computer to him. On Dec 10/90 I sent the
computer by parcel post, with insurance to Mr. Elliot, and on
Jan. 17/91 I received my computer back, that same night I
unpacked the unit and hooked it up, and turned it on. The
computer initialized and has been working ever since, so the
answer to the above question is "YES" . I highly rec commend
Dan Elliot, for repairs to Sinclair computers, his repair prices
are very reasonable, and his work is first rate. I have
included a copy of Dan's repair prices and instructions, with
this letter.
I now have an extra TS2068 that I am willing to loan out to
any club member, in Ontario or Quebec that needs one, while
thier ' s is getting repaired, if they pay the shipping cost both
ways, and if they damage it, will agree to repairs to it. I am
trying to get another QL for the same purpose. I have a friend
that is in need of a 16K or 32K ram pack for a ZX81, if you know
anyone that has one for sale let me know. That's it for now.
RJB
SINC-LINK
2X81 - TS1000 NEWS
By Jeff Taylor
The biggest thing to hit the 2X81 library in years arrived in
the mail last week. No less than 17 High Resolution programs and
games! For those users who invested in the Hunter board, the
SCRAM board or built the on-board NVM, this is like a dream come
true .
High resolution for the 2X81 you say? Instead of the blocky
low resolution (44x64) how would you like to see resolution of
256x176 dots on your screen? With an add-on Hunter-style board
or a small on-board circuit, this kind of resolution is
avai lable .
Much of the hi-res software developed in North America was
done by the team of Greg Harder and Fred Nachbaur (and Wilf
Rigter) . I contacted Mr. Harder in early February with a request
for any information he might still have on the hi-res programs.
He was surprised to hear that anyone would still be interested
in the old doorstop and graciously offered to copy what he had
remaining for us as long as we covered the costs of mailing and
tape. Less than three weeks later two tapes chock full of high
quality recordings and their manuals arrived. Some of the
programs require extra memory (32k+) but several will run with
just the 16k Rampack.
The programs range from drawing packages to detailed adventure
games, from mathematical art to arcade games. There is even one
that offers the option of using a joystick if you have the
correct interface.
For more info on hi-res, contact Rene Bruneau or myself. The
tapes will go into the 2X81 tape library.
Does anyone know where Fred Nachbaur is?
ZX81 - TS1000 Hi-Res Printouts
SINC-LINK
Larry Crawford 910222
A couple of years ago, George Chambers
put together a super program which
permitted files on a Larken disk to be
loaded with a single keystroke. My kind
of utility. I modified it somewhat. With
George's permission, here it is.
There are a couple of techniques used
which could be useful in other
applications, so read on.
The listed program will create an
AUTOSTART disk menu on a designated
disk. The entry point is line 8888. At
this point you are prompted to enter the
number of the drive to be processed
(dd).
F2NDBMQ WE ACTIVE BBSVE
The Larken system stores the active
drive number at location 8195 in the
LKDOS RAM. To find this number it is
necessary to Larken POKE 8200 with 8195.
<LET s=USR 110> assigns to s the value
stored at that location. This is really
a flag with the appropriate bit set .
Variable s will have a value of 2, 4, B9
or 16 depending upon which drive is
active. The Boolean calculation, <LET
sd-TNT (s/4- (s>8) ) > , converts the value
of s to an actual drive number. Drive 4.
the RAMDTSK, has a code of 128 and is
not looked after here. However, it would
not be used frequently and can be dealt
with manually.
In another application, this source
drive number could be poked into a safe
RAM location (e.g. 26687) for use later
on. In this program there is no need to
keep the drive number.
since they are not needed by the menu
program.
By using the Taswide utility, it is
possible to read a Tasword file directly
from the disk without having to load it
into Tasword. This is a very useful
feature for help files and lengthy
descriptions of programs on the disk.
Assuming that is resident, the code
"taswi .Cx" is loaded from the source
drive and saved to the destination
drive.
IF DON'T HAVE TASiaJXBE
Omit all of line 8888 except for the
destination drive input. Also omit lines
3 and 92 and the subroutine 5000 to
5030.
Control passes to line 9999, the SAVE
line. The variables are cleared out and
RAMTOP is poked with 256 bytes more than
the value stored in ELIN. The two PEEKS
and POKES do this.
Setting RAMTOP this way for the
AUTOSTART SAVE allows you to add to the
menu without having to worry about
exceeding the current value of RAMTOP.
You are prompted to press the <D> key
for the save and USR 102 is called to do
the job. Control now goes to line 8003.
In line 8000, thirty-two bytes are
poked into the unused area of RAM
starting at 24311 (it runs to 24560).
Here is the dissassemblys
DI
CALL 0062 (98 dec)
XOR A
LD (201D),A (8221 dec)
LD (2020), a (8224 dec)
CALL 007E (126 dec)
CALL 007B (123 dec)
LD HL,3204 (12804 dec)
LD DE,6824 (26660 dec)
LD BC,0010 (16 dec)
LDIR
LD A (0064) (100 dec)
EI
RET
The USR call to 24311 moves the
16 characters of the
another unused area of RAM starting at
26660 (it runs to 26687). The program is
then RUN.
data m&mmm
Lines 100 to 1000 are reserved for
DATA statements. Each statement must
contain two strings of data. The first
is a description of the program as it
will appear on the screen in the disk
menu. The second one is the exact
program name as it appears in the disk
catalog.
turn on LKDOS
a^0
current track #
error number ='-0
turn on track 0
Id bufr frm dsk
loc of dsk name
loc for name
length of name
move name
turn off LKDOS
first
disk name to
Line 8889 deletes line 8888 and itself
Lines 10 and 11 recover the disk name
from its storage area in RAM and assigns
it to x$.
Line 20 reads the data lines starting
at 100 and prints an identifying letter
and the first data statement to the
screen via subroutine 7000. The process
continues until it hits the dummy
statement at 1001 .
SINC— LINK
Lines 50 to 90 prompt you to press a
letter key within range and then a loop
reads the data lines until the selected
one is reached.
Line 91 assigns to t$ the extension
symbols of the file name. The file is
then LOADed as the appropriate type by
line 92, 94, or 98 depending on the
contents of t$.
After the program is typed in, SAVE it
as "dmm.BI" LINE 8888.
USXMQ "THE DISK r@*U mm
Load "dmm.BI". Place a disk in the
destination drive. This disk can be
blank or have programs on it but there
must be at least 2 free blocks available
for the AUTOSTART and another one for
Taswide if you are using it.
You will be prompted to enter the
number of the destination drive. Once
this is entered, "taswi.Cx" will be
loaded from the source drive and saved
to the destination drive (if
appl icable) .
The tune will play and you will be
prompted to press the <D> key. The
"blank" disk menu program will now be
saved as an AUTOSTART on the disk in the
destination drive.
USING THE DISK miJ
After booting the AUTOSTART on the
disk in the active drive, <BREAK> in
after the menu screen appears. Add the
appropriate DATA lines starting at line
100.
A typical line will look like this:
< 100 DATA "RABBIT'S REVENGE" , "rr .B1"> ,
the first statement being the
description which will appear in the
menu and the second the exact name of
the file to be loaded.
Then <G0 TO 9999 > to resave the
amended menu as an AUTOSTART.
Whenever a program is added to the
disk, repeat this procedure.
The whole process is relatively
painless and very useful. I recommend it
highly. LDC
LINE DELETE FOR THE SPECTRUM
by G. Chambers
Unl ike the 2068 computer,
the Spectrum does not have a
BLOCK DELETE function. The
following m/c program for the
Spectrum makes the job of
deleting a block of Basic
program I ines almost
instantaneous. To use the
facility simply merge lines 9000
to 9090 with the program you
want to trim, and type GOTO
9900. Or you could save the
machine code itself and then
type in I ines 9930 to 9980.
The code is re I ocatab I e and
can be loaded into any other
part of RAM by changing line
9905. As it stands CLEAR 31999
should be entered before the
program is run.
This utility was lifted from
the April '85 issue of Your
Computer, page 127. Credit to
Rodney Francis
8990 REM DELETE function
for the Spectrum
9900 INPUT "Address to instal co
de "°fc
9910 FOR n=c TO c+52
9920 READ d: POKE n,d
9930 NEXT n
99i*0 INPUT "First Line "; f
9950 INPUT "Last Line "; I
9960 POKE 23296, f -256* I NT (f/256
): POKE 23297, INT (f/256)
9970 POKE 23298, I -256* INT (1/256
): POKE 23299, INT (1/256)
9980 RANDOMIZE USR c
9990 DATA 237 ,91 ,0,91 , U2, 2,91 , 22
9, 167,237,82,225,216, 122, 179,200
,62,39, 188, 216, 32, U, 62, 15
9995 DATA 189,216,235,213,205, 11
0, 25, 209, 1 92, 229, 235, 205, 1 1 0, 25,
209, 1 92,213, 35, 35, 9U, 35, 86, 35, 25
, 209, 205, 229, 25, 20 1
9998 STOP
9999 PRINT USR 100: SAVE "delete
,B1"
SINC-LINK
21
SOME POPULAE MISCONCEPTIONS
(Mostly about filenames).
From time to time I read in an article or
letter about the QL statements that I know to be
untrue or at least misconceived. Sometimes the
same misconceptions occur over and over again.
The following comments arise from a recent (Jan
90) issue of QL World and the final issue of a US
newsletter called Quantum Levels, which started
with high hopes as a bimonthly in August 1986 but
only managed 12 issues in three years.
Basic Filenames.
Many people seem not to realise that there are
two ways of presenting QDOS commands with
filenames, and that the rules for allowable
characters differ between them. In each case
there is a limit of 36 characters in addition to
the five which define the device (e.g. mdv2_) .
1 . The normal method of supplying a
"parameter" consisting of unadorned ascii
characters when only normal letters, numbers and
the underscore character "_" are accepted, e.g.
LOAD mdvl_my_progl .
2. QDOS will also accept strings, otherwise
it would be almost impossible to write file
handling programs. (I think early versions of the
QL only worked this way. ) By a string I mean
i. a set of characters in quotes e.g. SAVE
"f lpl_!@#$" ,
ii. a string variable to which a string of
characters has been assigned e.g. COPY a$ , b$
iii. a string function e.g.
MERGE
dev$& " _ " &paa$&CHR$ (233) . In these cases the only
restriction is that the first five characters must
be a legitimate device name followed by an
underscore, the rest can be anything you can type
in at the keyboard, and even unprintable characters
(use CHR$() as above). Thus you could create
files with unprintable names that would be almost
impossible to delete without reformating the medium
if there were any point to this! Some
commercial programmers have used filenames
consisting entirely of spaces, which are invisible
in a normal listing - I once discovered one on a
disk someone sent me that read "FORMAT flpl_: FORMAT
flp2_" that was named " " ; luckily I discovered
it using my Ftidy program before it was activated.
As far as I can see these rules apply to all
commands that take filenames in the QL ROMs and in
Toolkit II, such as RENAME.
FORMAT also works in the same way as far as
medium name is concerned; that's how they got the
date in the form ' 9\9\85 on the early mdv
SINC-LINK
cartridges .
You can even put one totally nameless file
onto each medium; e.g. SAVE flpl_ creates such a
file. The file can be BASIC, text or machine
code, and is available to any of the commands
referring to a single file name. However, DIR,
and any commands or programs which make use of the
directory, fail to recognise the file at all. If
you suspect such a file may be lurking about on one
of your disks/cartridges you can reveal it by COPY
f lpl_, mdv2_secret (or something similar - COPY
flpl_,scr_ also works). If a file called "secret"
appears on your target device, then it is secret no
more and now available to all the normal
manipulations .
Psion Filenames.
It is fairly common to read that Quill files
must have the extension _doc, export files must
have the extension _exp etc. , This is not so,
these are merely the defaults that the Psion suite
uses if provided with nothing else. While you are
restricted to a maximum of eight normal letters and
numbers for the main part of the name and there
must be a thre character extension you can use any
three characters that can be obtained from the
keyboard for the extension. You must, however, type
them all in when you want to save or load the file;
"letter_@#$" is quite acceptable as a quill file
name for example. You can import any ascii text
file into quill too, but it must also fit these
rules, so you may have to COPY it to a regulation
filename (or rename if you have the facility. ) It
is the file header itself that distinguishes quill
files from abacus files etc. and not the extension
as is often thought. I use a three character date
code on all my letters e.g. Michael_B12 means a
letter to Michael written on November 12th (to me
at any rate ! )
More Psion tricks
Shift + F5 refreshes the screen in all the
programs, but for some reason is undocumented.
(Much better than F2 twice!)
Have you discovered that CTRL + down-arrow
deletes from the cursor to the end of the line, and
CTRL + up-arrow from the cursor to the beginning of
the line?
Howard Clase, Tel ( 709 ) -753-6415
Box 9947, Station B,
St John's,
Newfoundland ,
CANADA, A1A 4L4.
SINC-LINK
ZX RESOURCES
R. Bruneau
The hardware project presented this month is a parallel interface
using the Z80 PIO chip manufactured by Zilog. The interface is
fully decoded using Tim Stoddard's design published in Time Designs
Magazine for his article "ZX81 Data Acquisition Module" ( Real-time
Clock and Auxiliary Port) and is compatible with the 2068 and ZX81
data bus at the back of the computer.
The printed circuit provided is laid out to provide a Centronics
compatible port suitable for driving a big printer without losing
the flexibility of providing two input/output ports. The Z80 PIO
ports A and B can be programmed as input, output, bi-directional
or bit-controlled by sending a control-word to internal registers
that configure the ports as required. For use as a printer
interface, Port A is configured as input, and Port B is set up as
output. We are checking MSCRIPT and TASWORD for compatibility and
will report the software modifications required in the May/ June
newsletter.
Address locations for accessing the ports are as follows:
Port A, Data 53H 83D
Port B, Data 57H 87D
Port A, Control 5BH 9 ID
Port B, Control 5FH 95D (H=hex, D=dec)
Programming of the PIO is done by sending a control-word to the
correct register.
In Hexidecimal In Decimal Mode
OF 15 port is output
4F 79 port is input
8F 143 bi-directional
CF 207 bit-controlled
Example: To define Port A as an output in a 2068 system could be
done as follows:
OUT 91,15
OUT 83, (your data, a number from 0 to 255)
001
REM AAAAAAAAA
090
POKE X+7,»3
010
LET X=16514
110
PRINT MN=n;
020
POKE Xf62
120
INPUT N
030
POKE X+1,15
125
IF N<0 THEN STOP
040
POKE X+2,211
130
PRINT N
050
POKE X+3 , 91
140
POKE X+5,N
060
POKE X+4f62
150
LET A= USR X
080
POKE X+6,211
160
GOTO 110
ZX81 Listing
SiNC— LINK
so
.O
Q o o q o © ft q o o o o o
SINC-LIIMK
Another Printer Tip
ZX81/TS 1000
Sebastien Boisvert
My recent printer tip articles allowed you to COPY a specific
line, COPY a number of lines, so I fiqured that a routine to
COPY a block of lines would also be usefull. First, make a 1 REM
with 12 bytes in it and enter the rest of the program. Next, RUN
110 and enter the code at the bottom of the page. Then delete
lines 110-140 and there you have it!
10 PRINT "NUMBER OF LINES ?"
20 INPUT A
30 POKE 16515, A
40 PRINT "START LINE ?"
50 INPUT A
60 LET A=(A-1)*33
70 RAND A
80 POKE 16520, PEEK 16434
90 POKE 16521, PEEK 16435
100 RAND USR 16514
110 FOR F=16514 TO 16525
1-20 INPUT A
130 POKE F , A
140 NEXT F
The code: 22,0,42,12,64,1,0,0,9,195,110,8
DATA-READ-RESTORE ON A TS1000
by Sebast ten Boisvert
In our last issue of Sine Link
(Jan/ Feb 1991 Page 8) we ran an
article with the above title.
Regrettab I y, we did not include
several program listings that went
with it.
Here they are:
LISTING I
1 FOR ==15514 TO 15520
2 INPUT H
3 POKE P:H
4 NEXT F
LISTING 2
us
115
0
0
0
0
33
132
54
117
115
■if;
54
0
201
42
132
54
55
134
54
157
32
31
229
237
91
12
54
235
23~
52
225
£0
59
125
254
234
40
-
24
237
35
125
254
S
32
243
35
52
1
50
134
54
235
42
15
54
1
5
0
9
235
52
0
50
135
54
125
25-
25
40
19
254
115
40
10
23"
150
229
135
5-4
52
225
24
237
52
0
=?0
134
54
34
132
54
5
0
33
135
54
75
201
207
23
LISTING 3
HtCLEPP
2 DIM 25 '.32 i
3 LET REST =15520
4 LET PEPD=1S530
5 PPND USP PEST
LISTING 4
1 OLEPR
2 DIM 2 5 132 ;
3 LET PE5T=1S520
4 LET RERD =15530
5 RPND USP PEST
10 FOP F=l TO 3
20 LET H$=Z|i TO USP PEPD;
30 PRINT H$
40 NEXT F
50 LET P=UPL Z$ i TO USP PEPD
SO PRINT "RESTORE PDDRESS : """" -
70 LET P=UPL 25 1 TO USP PEPD
SO PRINT ::RERD PDDRESS : ; P
90 PRINT 25 i TO USP HERD)
100 PRINT 25? TO USR REPD)
110 REM W75 1000 OOMPUTER :DPT-
REPD /RESTORE PROGRRn , PEST , 1553D
OUT OF DPTP ERROR :
SINC-LINK
TPS System Repair
by Jeff Taylor
Just after Christmas I had a
look at Lyman Paquette's
defective TOS disk system. This
is the system that Timex of
Portugal developed for the
Spectrum in the mid-eighties.
TOS stands for Timex Operating
System. It was sold in the
U.S. for the TS2068 (with a
Spectrum bus adapter) by English
Micro Systems and Zebra Systems
and is often referred to as the
Zebra disk system.
Anyway, Lyman had borrowed my
TOS system to compare with his
and had quite rightly determined
that the fault lay with the
interface module (the unit with
the reset button) . I offered to
have a closer look and try to
fix the problem. A little
troubleshooting revealed that
the fault was one of two chips
on a small board which was
piggybacked to the main
interface board.
"No problem". I thought , " I ' 1 1
just replace both chips and
we'll be back in business".
Wrongo, one of the chips had had
its identifying numbers ground
off. Literally. I could see the
marks where someone had actually
used a sanding disc on the chip.
Why? To prevent the average home
handyman from repairing these
things instead of sending it
back to the dealer, I guess. The
trouble is... there are no
dealers anymore! My system was
no help, the same chips were
ground down. What to do?
English Micro is long gone but
Zebra still exists. I called
their number and was told that
they no longer supported TS
computers. I already knew that
but after pressing a little more
I was able to get the owner's
phone number. Stuart Newfeld (I
hope thati spelled correctly) was
very helpful. He did not have
any replacement parts for the
TOS system but he knew who did.
When Zebra got out of the TS
market all their TOS parts went
to Jack Dohaney (of MSCRIPT
fame). A call to Jack in
California and a board with the
phantom PLA (programmable logic
array) chip was in the mail the
next day. Jack has also
developed a board which combines
the interface with the bus
adapter in a much smaller and
neater package. He also included
a tape with a new set of disk
utilities and he did all this on
credit. He sends the stuff then
you pay him. There are too few
businessmen like him!
Once the new board was
installed properly, the moment
of truth had arrived. Power up
and presto, the system booted
perfectly. Thanks, Jack.
Jack says that in the very
near future he will hand all his
hardware business over to a
dealer to tend so he can devote
himself to more programming. He
also says that TOS users are not
limited to the 3" drives, any
drive should work.
My thanks to all the
out-of-town members who offered
support and even their own
systems(!) while I was repairing
this one. Is anyone interested
in exchanging info about this
system? While my Larken system
is my favourite, I would like to
learn more about TOS, any
takers?
HiimiiiimiiiiiMMiiiiii!
Disk drive controller box and plug-in interface
28
SINC-LINK
HOU TO SQUISH A DISK
to 'J
Bob
fl i t c h
1 1
918112
Fragmentation is a phenomenon occurring on disk storage, in
which files tend to get broken op into many small extents
scattered all over the disk- It is especially prevalent and
serious on heavily used disks that have suffered erasures and
overwri ting .
The
rearrangement of data on a disk is catted compaction or
de fragmentation; it is also known as SQUISHING and is usually
done by a special utility program. The object of squishing is to
accelerate data storage and retrieval thus improving the overall
performance of the system. The squished disk will respond much
more quickly to header readers tike Fullcat and prevent the
drive head from moving frantically back and forth searching for
the various extents c tracks or blocks in the Larken system;
sectors in others) of each file. Uhen a disk is badly fragmented
or when a catalogue is sorted, the disk should be compacted -
Compaction must be accomplished Cat least for the Larken system)
by using a utility that copies the disk file by file , never
track by track, such a file is the Disk File Manager by Jack
Dohany which is available from the club library. Another choice
would be Richard Hurd's copymachine.
drive and
mark
the
TO squish a disk:
1. Load the copy program (eg, Disk File Manager).
2. Put the disk to be copied into the source
freshly-formatted disk into the target drive.
3„ select the source drive and when the catalogue appears,
the files with an X by pressing I, then press M to start
houe (copy) process. Repeat the process as required
all files on the source disk.
4.. Using a disk rename utility, give the target disk its proper
name as this was not copied from the source disk.
and extent
Terms used above such as squish, compact
are taken from the following sources:
1. The New American Computer Dictionary by
by Signet 1985.
2. Barron's Dictionary of computer Terms
Downing and Covington published by Barron's
fragmented
Kent Porter published
Edition by
Second
1989.
^ { ^fx:reS^
WORDMASTER TIP
Lionel Keeping sends this tip
for Wora master on the Larken.
"If you want to save disk space
you can save several small files on
one track from the file handling
menu and thus save some space. For
example, my letters to UPDATE
magazine are all fairly short but
eacch would take up one track if
stored separately. If I store
several of them in one disk file
(still keeping them as separate
WORDMASTER files in memory) I can
save one or two tracks. It also
helps keep track of them all since
they are in one disk file. I do the
same thing for some of my letters to
you, but, as in the case of this
one, they usually take up an entire
track by themselves."
Lifted from a recent letter to me.
G.F.C.
SINC-LINK
29
LAN
o r
Local
US ING
3 a 1ST
"QL ■
by Hugh H Howie
e ±. wo g» 1c
Do you really know how fortunate you are to own a QL? Do
you realise the power and versatility at your finger
tips?
In Toronto, we have a lonthly paper called
TORONTO COMPUTES, This is a free publication, where the
Computing Industry can shout its wares. Also included are
■any excellent articles on the latest and best and worst,
in the coiputer world, in general.
The January issue of this paper has quite an article by
David Carter extolling the virtues of LAN, an acronyi for
Local Area Network. Sound faiiliar? It should do, as this
is what we in the QL world just refer to as "Networking".
[ would like to quote soie figures froi his essay, as they
are very interesting. He starts off by saying that 410, Ml
Canadian licros are already connected with PCLANS, and
that the trend is expected to grow to three sill ion by
1993, these figures according to a forecast by IDC Canada
Ltd.
He goes in considerable depth into the whys and wherefores
of this systei, its advantages and its savingSo How it is
done and its costs. A very enlightening explanation of
ail it can do, and well worthy of your attention. He
■akes the subject very interesting, even a couple of
diagrais showing a typical set-up with various
peripherals added. According to Mr Carter the only costs
for peer-to-peer are $100 to $201 for the network
interface, (one for each Machine) plus the $500 to several
thousand dollar cost for cabling and software. If you have
to call soieone in to install all this, that would cost
soiewhere between $75 to $200.
This would appear to take the cost to set-up three
Machines, to be in the region of at LEAST $800. PLCS the
cost of the computers. More on this later.
The first in what would appear to be a series on this
subject, and froi what I have already read, [ look
forward to the coiing essays.
This reminds le of a deio I gave to soie QLers a short
tiie ago, (Louis Laferrier wrote about it in the last
issue). The deio showed how to send a docuient froi 13
QL to the printer attached to ft. I also had soieone
play a gaie on II, and was able to ask hii froi 12 to
place a prograi in drive 1, so that I could load it to
12. It was all a latter of criss-cross action and
prograis and data being transferred back and forth.
To do this did not cost le $800 PLUS the cost of the
coiputers. All I did was use 3 QL's, with the addition
of a little gadget called TK2 attached to each, and a
cable or two froi ly stereo, to connect the lachines.
What did this set-up cost le? Well you all know that the
cost of a QL (an orphan coiputer?) is well under $100,
and that the little gadget called TI2 is about $45.
That's it, less than $150 for each lachine. THAT
INCLUDES COMPUTE!. A total of $450. Coiplete.
Not $800 PLUS COUPUTEiS.
Now I ai not going to suggest that the QL systei is
better than the systeis under discussion. All I ai
saying is that HI AL1EADY HAVE IT. Eight here in the QL.
Adiittedly the QL systei has its limitations, one is
distance, (100 feet) but that can leas across an office
or up or down froi floor to floor. 10 floors -100ft?
Why do not lore try networking? If you only have one QL,
get together with a friend and try it out. All you need is
a QL and TI2 at each station, and a cable to connect tbei.
Yes I how added leiory is a distinct advantage, but not
absolutely necessary. I know that the QL can Network
without TI2, but TK2 helps a lot.
The lain thing is, we have this at our finger tips,
without spending hundreds of dollars. The QL was, and is,
far ahead of its tiie, and does not get the credit it
deserves. §§§
-FORMAT TO 894/900 SECTORS? = UH?
Did you ever coie across an 80 track disk that looked
like the above? This does not lean the disk is no
Soie software lanufacturers fonat a disk in this lanner
to ensure no bits and pieces are added to the disk. You
can do the saie if you have a Guiana l/F, or Truipcard.
With Cuiana I/F, use the "flp.opf9 coiiand. Type; -
"FLP_0PT 2, 30, 50" Then fonat in the usual lanner,
and you will have a disk with 900 sectors. (50 tricks x
18 sectors per track). This will only work on 80 track
disks. The SPACE between "com a" and the T is
critical!
With Truipcard, the coiiand is:- "FLPJrack 30". Once
again fonat in the usual lanner, ending up with a disk
fonatted to 534/540 sectors. This works with 40 or 80
track disks. I have even fonatted a disk with 85 tracks
(1530 sectors) with this lethod, but I do not know what
effect it would have on data. Strange things perhaps!
Using the Cuiana "FLPJDPT 2, 30, 50, the first figure is
the Security Level, the second the Startup Tiie, third
is the nuiber of tracks to fonat to. I would suggest
you not play with those first two figures. To regain
the original settings, repeat the coiiand using 80 or 40
as desired. Or else RESET. Have fun !
HHH
30
SINC-LINK
323 1/2 N . Church Street
Bowling Green, OH 43402
January 26, 1991
Dear George,
I got the latest issue of Sine-Link today, and am glad to
say you and the club seem to be thriving.
I read with interest Bob Swoger and Larry Kenny's article
on changing the stepping rate on a Larken disk. Perhaps that is
one problem I have had with attempting to use disks between my
two drives, though I have not attempted to verify it yet.
However, I noticed a serious mistake in the program. In
line 80, the new stepping rate is POKEd to 40015, but the READ/
POKE in line 120 writes over this! In other words, the only
rate this program will change to is the one in the DATA, which
is the 30ms rate. The slow rate will not prevent someone with a
faster drive from reading the disk, but means the program does
not actually do what it says.
The cure is trivial: change line 80 to line 130. Then the
POKE will occur after the DATA has been READ, and all will be
well.
Note also that those values are for the old controller.
The same numbers will have different meanings if you have one of
the newer controllers. My system with an FD1797 from AERCO uses
the same stepping rates, so I can't guess what the new rates
might be, though 1, 2, 3, and 6 might be a good guess. If you
have one of the new controllers and an appropriate drive, it
really won't matter since it will still be slow enough.
Also, R6al Gagnon's Sinclair Trivia is missing one answer,
the one about the unique feature of the 2068. Since he said
2068 and not Spectrum, I can only presume that it is a feature
the 2068 has but the Spectrum does not: either bank switching,
the AY3-8912 sound chip, or the fact it has 2 joystick ports.
I see you also published my Tasword file compressor. I
hope no one tries to write me at the address given, though,
since that is my home address. Well, I suppose my parents would
forward it here.
A suggestion for for a more elegant way to handle the OUT
and delay on page 17 (or anywhere else). We could make
something which acts like an LPRINT to some extent. Also, the
delay may need to check a different number on different
printers, as you well know (when I changed from a Fastext 80 to
my current Panasonic, I did have to change numbers).
The routine would work as follows: place the item(s) to be
sent to the printer into a string (I will use p$). Then call
the following subroutine:
1000 LET p=IN 127: IF p-8*INT (p
/8)+16*INT (p/16)=229 THEN GOTO
1000
1005 IF LEN p$=0 THEN RETURN
1010 OUT 127, CODE p$ : LET p$=p$(
2 TO)
1015 GOTO 1000
SINC-LINK
The string for the original program would be as follows:
LET p$=CHR$ 27+"3"+CHR$ 15+CHR$ 15 +CHR$ 27+"T0": GOSUB 1000.
To me at least, this is somewhat more elegant than the original.
Also, it will let you "LPRI NT" any string without needing to set
up the LKDOS OPEN #3,"lp" command, but you will need to add an
ENTER to each line (CHR$ 13).
For the record, there are at least 4 signals from the
printer which the AERCO interface passes to the computer by
IN 127. There are actually 5 lines from the printer to the
computer which are supposed to carry signals, which are labelled
in my printer manual as ACK, PO, BUSY, SLCT, and ERROR (the
Fastext 80 uses some slightly different names). The nearest
estimates I have for the different bits are as follows:
Bit 0 Not used (always high)
Bit 1 PO Paper Out
Bit 2 ERROR (high means no error)
Bit 3 ??? unknown (possibly SELECT or ACK)
Bit 4 BUSY (high means buffer full or printer off-line)
Bits 5-7 not used (always high)
The primary difference between my printer and yours as far
as IN 127 is concerned is bit 3 above - yours appears to be
always high, while mine stays low. Hence, you get 237, but I
find 229 when I "PRINT IN 127". The line 1000 in the routine
above removes only bit 3, thus changing your 237 to my 229 but
leaving mine alone. You could use line 1000 anywhere you
normally use IF IN 1270237 THEN...
Speaking of which, is the 108 you listed an error? It does
not agree with your previously listed value of 237.
Note the 27, 51, 15 is equivalent to 27, 65, 5 if your
printer has superscripts but not n/216 inch spacing - some of
the older EPSON and compatible printers don't. Also, people
with IBM Proprinter compatible printers will need to add an
additional 27, 50. I notice your printer could not handle the
subscript command. The small print of the subscript looks very
good in compressed pitch, and changing the spacing makes it look
almost like you simply reduced it to about 60% of the original.
Using compressed and reducing the print spacing to 8 lines per
inch is not as good looking, but will do in a pinch.
Oh, if I got a red face every time I made a mistake, people
would think I had a constant sunburn. In my line, you discover
mistakes are unavoidable, and try to correct them as quickly as
possible. So you will have to forgive me my bad habit of
jumping on any error I see, as I expect people to jump on my
errors .
Here is a list of the various values I get from my printer
for various printer conditions, along with my interpretations
thereof :
Code Printer State Interpretation
225 Printer Off All lines low
229 Printer Ready Line 2 high (no error)
231 Paper Out/Online Lines 1 and 2 (paper out, no error)
241 Offline Line 4 high (Busy and error)
SINC-LINK
243 Paper Out/Offline Lines 1 and 4 (Busy, error, and PO)
245 Printer Busy Lines 2 and 4 (Busy and no error)
Presumably, your printer may have 8 added to most of these.
Additionally, I believe the Fastext 80 does not possess a non-
error paper-out condition. Therefore, you would not have a 231
or equivalent. There are other differences, particularly in the
SELECT line, but from these values I suspect that line is not
available. I still don't know what line 3 is, which your
printer has high and mine low. It isn't the SELECT line, but
perhaps it is some line not used on either.
I did not get to mail this last week - I misplaced the copy
I had printed, and am just about to re-print it. Take care, and
I will write you again later. Peace!
Sincerely,
CLEAN SCREEN
I came across this 'letter to the
editor1 in the Aug "85 issue of YOUR
COMPUTER. This question and answer may
be of interest to many of our members.
It also works on the TS2068. GFC
"I have written several games for
the Spectrum, in which I load a
complete picture (saved as Screens)
into the computer, so it can sit there
while the main program is loading.
However, I don't want the loading
message of the second program to
obliterate parts of the picture which
is on the screen. I know I can
overcome this, to some extent, by
controlling the PAPER and INK colours
of the loading message, but this puts
some restrictions on the original
Screen$ picture. Is there a better
way ?
A. Steve Dempster, of Littleworth,
Stafford, has discovered a very good
way of solving this problem. To
prevent the filename from obstructing
your Screens, first PEEK 23570. Note
down the answer you get. Next, after
the Screens has loaded, have your
loading routine POKE 23570,16. After
the main program has loaded, POKE
23570 with the original number.
SINC-LINK
5 REM Listing entered and
modified for the Larken System
by G. Chambers,
10 POKE 23658,0s CLS : PRINT A
T 2, 10; " IMAGE EDIT" ' ' "Your Compu
ter April 1985, p 135"; "'TAB 6/
"Menus" ' ' "1 1 2/3/ii Load Screen"
' i "S Start Editor"' ' "Q
Quit"
15 PRINT '"6 Return to
Basic" ' ' "0 Clear Screen
,ii i iiq 1 9 OVER /OVER lap Black
a
17 PRINT "'hi Help"
20 IF INKEY$="q" THEN STOP
30 IF INKEY$="s" THEN GO TO 1
00
35 IF INKE Y$="h" THEN GO TO 1
000
41 LET c^CODE INKEY$s IF c>^8
AND c<53 THEN LET sc=( CODE INKE
r$)~U9: INPUT "Input Full Screen
Name ";n$s RANDOMIZE USR 100s L
OAD n$C0DE sc*61M+H0000s GO TO
10
50 GO TO 20
WO CLS : RANDOMIZE USR 23296s
PRINT #0;"Save Image Y/N ? "
110 IF INKE Y$="y" THEN INPUT "
Name ? ";n$s RANDOMIZE USR 100s
SAVE n$SCREEN$ s GO TO 10
120 IF INKE Y$="n" THEN GO TO 1
0
130 GO TO 110
1000 CLS s PRINT TAB 12; "IMAGE E
DIT"
1010 PRINT ' " Have you ever wish
ed to comb ine ind iv idual screen$.
This is difficult in Basic
as you cannotmerge two screens o
r load one with OVER on,"
1020 PRINT '" This program, I ma
ge Edit, letsyou combine picture
s. "
10U-0 PRINT ' " You will be pres
ented with a menu. If you want t
o combine 2, 3, or 4 images, I oa
d them into different SCREENS,
Press keys 1 to 4 in turn to I oa
d the des iredscreens into memory
. When you have loaded all the
desired screens, press the
S key to start the machine c
ode program. "
1050 PAUSE 0s CLS s PRINT " Th
ere are two different ways of co
mbining images, using the m/c c
ommands OR or XOR. "
1060 PRINT ' " 'XOR' puts the ima
ges together the same way as the
Basic command OVER. Where
there is an overlap, a space is
made. 'OR' adds the images com
pletely, leaving the overlap
black. When using the m/c progr
am, press 1, 2, 3, or 4 to put a
n image on the screen. It will
be added to whatever is on the
screen according to the mo
de XOR or OR. "
1070 PRINT ' " When returning to
the program you will be given t
he opportun i-ty of Saving the co
mposite or loading more images
a
1080 PAUSE 0s CLS s PRINT '"' I
t is possible to create some oth
er effects by comb inat ions oft he
two modes. For example, you can
subtract an image from what is
already on the screen by add
ing it first in OR mode, then in
XOR mode, "
1090 PRINT "' When comb in ing pi
ctures, colours are ignored
as they would be jumbled wh
en combined , The final image i
s Saved as -black on white"
1100 PRINT 'TAB 6; **************
** a
1110 PAUSE 0s GO TO 10
8999 STOP
9000 RANDOMIZE USR 100s SAVE "im
age,B1" LINE 9020
9010 STOP
9020 BORDER 7s PAPER 7s INK 0s C
LEAR 39999s RANDOMIZE USR 100s L
OAD " image, C1 "CODE 23296s GO TO
10
SINC -LINK
5B00
LD B,247;
.<i3298
5B02
LD C, 254;
23300
5B04
LD Ay B
23301
5B05
IN Ar CO
JL. w O v O
5B07
AND 1;
5B09
JR Z, 23360
Or f
23307
5B0B
LD A, B
23308
5B0C
IN A, CO
23310
5B0E
AND 2;
ii33 1 2
5B10
JR Z, 23383
hjJQ
23314
5B12
LD A, B
23315
5B 1 3
IN A, CO
23317
5B 1 5
AND 4;
LA
^.o3 1 ^
5B17
JR Z, 23406
5B19
LD A, B
5B1A
IN A, CO
5B1C
AND 8 *,
r
-roue
2332fc>
5B1E
JR Z, 23430
23328
5B20
LD B,239;
23330
5B22
LD A,B
23331
5B23
IN A, CO
23333
5B25
AND 16$
23335
5B27
RET Z
23336
5B28
LD A, B
23337
5B29
IN A, CO
23339
5B2B
AND 4;
23341
5B2D
JR Z, 23468
23343
5B2F
LD A, B
23344
5B30
IN A, CO
23346
5B32
AND 2j
2334S
5B34
JR Z, 23476 '
23350
5B36
LD A,B
23351
5B37
IN A, CO
5B39
AND 1;
\
5B3B
CALL Z, 2214
v /
5B3E
JR 23296
o^e 23360
5B40
LD DE, 16384
23363
5B43
LD HL , 40000
23366
5B46
LD BC,6144
23363
5B49
LD A, CDE)
23370
5B4A
CALL 23454 *
23373
5B4D
LD CDE), A
23374
5B4E
INC DE
23375
5B4F
INC HL
23376
5B50
DEC BC
23377
5B5 1
LD A, B
23378
5B52
OR C
23379
5B53
JR NZ, 23369
JR 23296 «>1
two 23383
5B57
LD DE, 16384
23386
5B5A
LD HL, 46144
5B5D
LD BC,6144
5B60
LD A, CDE)
23393
5B61
CALL 23454
23396
5B64
LD CDE), A
23397
JDDJ
INC DE
23398
5B66
INC HL
23399
5B67
DEC BC
23400
5B68
LD A,B
23401
5B69
OR C
23402
5B6A
JR NZ, 23392
23404
5B6C
JR 23296 51e
tfo>ree 23406
23409
23412
23415
23416
23419
23^20
2342 1
23422
23423
23424
23425
23427
23430
23433
23436
23439
23440
23443
23444
23445
23446
23447
23448
23449
23451
•yv
5B6E LD DE, 16384
5B71 LD HL, 52288
5B74 LD BC,6144
5B77 LD A, CDE)
5B78 CALL 23454
5B7B LD CDE), A
SB7C INC DE
5B7D INC HL
5B7E DEC BC
5B7F LD A, B
5B80 OR C
5B81 JR NZ, 23415
5B83 JP 23296 ®
5B86 LD DE, 16384
5B89 LD HL, 58432
5B8C LD BC,6144
5B8F LD A, CDE)
5B90 CALL 23454 -
5B93 LD CDE), A
5B94 INC DE
5B95 INC HL
5B96 DEC BC
5B97 LD A, B
5B98 OR C
5B99 JR NZ, 23439
5B9B JP 23296
hwlW 23454 5B9E PUSH AF
23455 5B9F LD A, C23681 )
23458 5BA2 BIT 0,A
23460 5BA4 JR Z, 23465- '
23462 5BA6 POP AF
23463 5BA7 OR CHL)
23464 5BA8 RET
-SuW ' 23465 5BA9 POP AF
23466 5BAA XOR CHL)
23467 5BAB RET
< 23468 5BAC LD A,0j
23470 5BAE LD C 23681), A
23473 5BB1 JP 23296
23476 5BB4 LD A, 1 ;
23478 5BB6 LD C23681),A
23481 5BB9 JP 23296
23484 5BBC NOP
23485 5BBD NOP
.CI
100 REM IMAGE EDIT
The code for the
Image Edit program
105 REM ** For the TS2068**
To use on the Spectrum
POKE 23356,107; POKE 23357,13
110 RESTORE 120: FOR n=23296 TO
23*86: READ a: POKE n,a: NEXT n
120 DATA 6, 2*7, 1*, 25*, 120, 237
121 DATA 120,230,1 ,*0, 53, 120
122 DATA 237, 1 20, 230, 2, *0, 69
1 23 DA TA 1 20, 237, 1 20, 230, *, *0
12* DATA 85, 120,237, 120,230,8
125 DATA *0, 102,6,239, 120,237
1 26 DA TA 1 20, 230, 1 6, 200, 1 20, 237
1 20, 230, *, *0, 1 25, 1 20
237, 120, 230, 2, *0, 126
120,237, 120,230, 1,20*
166,8,2*, 192, 17,0
6*, 33, 6*, 156, 1,0
2*, 26, 205, 158,91 , 18
19,35,11 , 120, 177,32
2**, 2*, 169, 17,0,6*
33,6*, 180, 1,0,2*
26,205, 158,91, 18, 19
35,11, 120, 177,32,2**
2*, 1*6, 17,0, 6*, 33
6*, 20*, 1,0, 2*, 26
205, 158,91, 18, 19,35
11,120, 177,32,2**, 195
0,91, 17, 0,6*, 33
6*, 228, 1,0, 2*, 26
205, 158,91, 18, 19,35
11, 120, 177,32,2**, 195
0,91 ,2*5,58, 129, 92
203,71 ,*0, 3, 2*1 , 182
201,2*1, 17*, 201 ,62,0
50, 129, 92, 195,0, 91
62, 1,50, 129,92, 195
0,91 ,0,0,0,0
1 5,5; "Data has bee
Press a key to se
and save to
127 DATA
128 DATA
129 DATA
130 DATA
131 DATA
132 DATA
133 DATA
13* DATA
135 DATA
136 DATA
137 DATA
138 DATA
139 DATA
1*0 DATA
1*1 DATA
1*2 DATA
1*3 DATA
744 DATA
1*5 DATA
1*6 DATA
1*7 DATA
1*8 DATA
1*9 DATA
150 DATA
151 DATA
310 PRINT AT
n entered" ' ' "
feet drive,
disk. "
320 PAUSE 0: INPUT "Drive # ";d
rv: RANDOMIZE USR 100: GO TO drv
: RANDOMIZE USR 100: SA\/E "image
.01 "CODE 23296, 188
8990 STOP
9000 RANDOMIZE USR 100: SAVE " im
age.Bx"
ALFA-BYTES #1
by the Tonkin Reader
There has recently been a lot
of discussion about what will
and will not be compatible
carry-over programs from the
Spectrum to* the TS2068. The
determining factor seems to lie
in the exclusive use of fully
documented ROM calls. As any
good programmer knows, Basic,
which we find in ROM, is an
understandable combination of
assembly language instructions
called MNEMONICS, some of the
most common of which are JNP,
BRA, STA, BCC, LEA, ETC
(et cetera) . The following are
a few of the lesser known
instructions ,that are present
in most, if not all computers.
ARG: Agree to Run Garbage
(definitely the
most often used
euphemism among users)
DDS: Damage Disk and Stop
(who hasn't seen this
one?)
VMB: Verify and make bad
(precedes ARG in
operation)
SDJ:Send all Data to Japan
(ever wonder where it
went?)
TTC: Tangle Tape and Crash
(created just for CCR
users)
YII: Yield to Irresistible
Impulse
(occurs after VMB/ARG;
results in purchase
of new case)
KFP: Kindle Fire in Printer
(need that report when?)
LNM: Launch Nuclear Missiles
(you were on WHAT BBS?)
It's pretty certain that most
of us have experienced at least
one of the above, and this is
by no means an exhaustive
listing. Watch next time as
ALFA-BYTES brings you
additional tid-BYTES from the
Tonkin Reader.
from Nite Times News
SINC-LINK
35
I have some SINCLAIR magazines for sale. Shipping is included with
the price quoted for each Package.
Sinclair Magazine ail originals, no copies
TS HORIZONS (USA. 2068, ZX81) no. 1,2.3.4.5,6 $ 4.00
BASIC COMPUTER NEWSLETTER (USA.zx81) vol 1 no. 2.3.4.5 , $ 2.00
SINCLAIR PROJECT (british. hardware oriented . ZX81 . spectrum )
dec/jan 83 to aug/sept 84 (10 issues) __ $7.50
SINCLAIR PROGRAMS (british. 40 programs to type in in each
issue. ZX81. spectrum)
jan/feb 83. may 84. june 83 $ 3.00
PERSONAL COMPUTER (Italian magazine, excellent coverage for
Spectrum and QL)
no. 1 to 19 , $20.00
SINCLAIR USER (big british magazine, spectrum, few OX)
jan 85 to dec 85 $15.00
SINCLAIR USER (big british magazine, spectrum)
april 83. may 83. jul S4 to dec 84 $12.00
SINCLAIR USER (big british magazine, spectrum, few qi)
may 86 to nov 86 _ $12.00
OX USER (british. QL only)
feb 85. apr 85 to nov 85 , $15.00
UPDATE (USA. 2068 and OX)
oct 88. jan 89 to oct 90 (total 9 nos.) . $10.00
PERSONAL COMPUTER WEEKLY (british, excellent coverage for
spectrum and QL, weekly magazine)
vol. 4 no. 25 to 51. except 34 (total 26 issues) $25.00
PERSONAL COMPUTER WEEKLY (british. excellent coverage for
spectrum and QL. weekly magazine)
vol. 5 no. 1 to 36 and 38 (total 37 issues) __ $35.00
SUM (USA. 2068. few X)
vol. 3 no. 6 to 9. vol. 4 no. 1 to 6 (10 issues) $ 6.00
ZX COMPUTING (british. spectrum and QL)
apr/ may 84. apr 86 to jul 86. sep 36 to dec 86
jan 87 and mar 67 to jun 87 (13 issues) $25.00
TIMEX-SINOAIR USER (USA. ZX81)
vol. 1 nos. 1.2.3.4.6 $ 5.00
SYNC (USA. ZX81)
vol. 2 no. 3-6. vol. 3 no. 1-2 . $ 4.00
SINCLAIR a WORLD (british, QL only)
dec86. jan67 to feb87. jun86 to nov86 (9 issues) $15.00
Real Gagnon
8286 St-Hubert -1Zl ,fl1
Montreal (Quebec) 514-381-6264
H2P 1Z3
SINC-LINK
Jan/ Feb 1991
Jan 15, 1991
Dear Out-of-Town Members,
I'm not sure that I can fill a page
this time. Maybe it's because of the
Chr i st mas season, I don't know.
But I'll start off with a plea from
our news I etter editor. He has a
Portugeuse disk system designed for the
2068. It was marketed by English
M icroconnect ion and /or the Zebra people.
Jeff asked me if any of the OOT members
might have such a system. If so, would
you look at the innards of the Interface
box. That is the one with the reset
button on it. THere are two chips in
this box, and on both Jeff's and another
system he has looked at the code
markings on these two chips have been
carefully scraped off. Jeff would like
to know what what these chips are. The
part number is sufficient, if it is
showing. Though, I suppose that if
anyone had the schematic for this
system, it would show this informat ion.
From looking at a recent issue of
T IMELINEZ, pub I i shed by American Micro
Systems, I see that they are going to
d iscont inue pub I i cat ion. All TIMELINEX
ubscr ibers are goinq to have their
Subscription filled by receiving issues
of the SNUG newsletter, ROUNDUP.
In this issue of T IMELINEZ, Jul -Dec
1990, there is an advert by the
CAMBRIDGE GROUP, inviting club members
to become what they term " part-t ime
sales consultants", to sell the Z88
computer on campus at colleges and
un i vers it ies. No pricing is given. They
give a phone number to call, 800-458
9008. Ask about becoming a Cambr idge
Colleague. Caution though; I just
noticed that this advert, in the form of
a letter, has a date of January 19,
1990; a year old.
Also in this issue is a series of
documents put out by the District of
Maine Bankruptcy Court. They pertain to
an agreement reached between SSI
Computer Systems, Inc., and a couple of
banks that are owed money. It appears
there is an agreement between the
parties to let SSI continue to sell
their product contingent on rem itt ing
$150 per item to the banks. What is the
product, you ask? Well none other than
he Z88 computer. Seems they have about
.700 Z88's to sell, plus another 273
refurb i shed units, and 345 failed
un its.
There is also a phrase "d/b/a
CAMBRIDGE NORTH AMERICA", in one of the
documents; it is unclear to me just what
the connection is.
While we're on the subject, there is
an advert in the INDIANA T/S UG
news I etter . It is by MACro Systems and
offers a 2-pound computer called the
"Personal Ass istant ". Special price for
a 32K system, $325 US; for a 2 Meg
system, $1225. You can also buy
add it ional RAM cartridges; starting at
128K for $75, up to 1024K for $495.
EPROM cartridges are said to be coming
1st quarter of 1991 (haven't I heard
that before?), for about the same
pricing. If you haven't guessed, a
squiggle at the bottom of the page says
this is the Z88. MACroSystems E.T.C.,
1207 South State Street, Salt Lake
City, Utah 84111. tel. 801-575 8855.
Anybody want an AMDEK disk drive
system. Two 3" drives along with the
power supply, all contained in a case.
Along with about twenty 3- inch disks.
This belongs to a former member, Greg
Lloyd, who used it on his Larken system.
They happen to be at my place. I have
ment ioned them before in the news I etter,
but they are still around. I think I
told Greg they vtere worth more than what
it turned out Timex owners wished to
pay!! Well, that's how it goes. Actually
I think the disks would be a good buy
for anyone who already has such a
system. You get a goodly supply of disks
plus a backup to your disk system. Why
don't I use it? Well, I have enough
complications already, with DS and QD
drives!! I used to have a system like
this, and I must say, it worked
beautifully. Drop me a line if you are
interested.
Got my income tax forms today, and
so I took a look at them to see what
changes would be necessary to my income
tax program. There are quite a few minor
changes. The program is only useful for
Canad ians, and then it is oriented more
to Ontario taxpayers, since it includes
the Provincial income tax. However, if
anyone is interested in, ask.
I don't think there has been any
add it ions to the Larken library. We are
up to disk #40, if that says anything.
I think that's where we were a couple of
months ago. The tape libraries are
pretty stat ic these days also. I think
there is probably more programs in those
libraries than anyone can cope with, so
there is not much urgency to adding to
them. I can't tell you much about the QL
library; you'll have to ask the QL
I ibrar ian.
S incere I y, George Chambers
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